The research reports submitted to the board of directors contain in

Question

The research reports submitted to the board of directors contain  in their appendices figures which suggest that  the firm should actively cultivate foreign markets.

(A) in their appendices figures which suggest that

(B) figures in their appendices which would suggest the fact that

(C) figures in its appendix which suggest

(D) figures in its appendix which suggests thatin their appendices figures which suggest the fact that

(E) in their appendices figures which suggest the fact that

Hi,
I want to know how this sentence works (just for OA), please.
I can see "suggest that" and an idiom "contain in".
It is not clear what "figures" doing in this sentence.

sivasanjeev · Answer

The  research reports  submitted to the board of directors contain  in  their  appendices figures which suggest that  the firm should actively cultivate foreign markets.

'their' is the antecedent of 'reports'. Eliminate C and D, first.
Removing the prepositional phrases (for identifying properly, the modifiers) we have,

The  research reports  submitted to the board of directors contain  figures  which  suggest  that the firm should actively cultivate foreign markets.

(A)  in their appendices  figures which suggest that
 removing the prep. phrase, we see that the reports contain figures, and these figures suggest that the firm actively cultivate foreign markets.

(B) figures in their appendices which would suggest the fact that
 suggest is modifying appendices (and not figures). Also usage of 'would' is wrong. 
 (C) figures in its appendix which suggest 
 (D) figures in its appendix which suggests thatin their appendices figures which suggest the fact that 
(E) in their appendices figures which suggest the fact that
 'figures' cannot suggest a fact. Probably, they can reveal a fact.

My only issue with the sentence is that, a subjunctive should have been used, because X is suggesting Y to do something.

ConnectTheDots · Answer

The research reports submitted to the board of directors contain  in their appendices figures that suggest  the firm should actively cultivate foreign markets.

a) in their appendices figures that suggest
 clear and concise - 'their' refers to reports and the clause 'that suggest the firm..' modifies figures correctly. 
b) figures in their appendices that would suggest the fact that
 "their" is ambiguous - could be reports or figures. changes meaning - original sentence 'figures suggest' here 'appendices suggest' 
c) figures in its appendix that suggest
 'It' doesn't comply with plural subject 
d) figures in its appendix that suggests that
 'It' doesn't comply with plural subject 
e) in their appendices figures that suggest the fact that
 wordy and indirect - figures that suggest the fact that

somil0912 · Answer

Can please someone tell me why 'E' is wrong.

pqhai · Answer

Hello.

E has meaning problem. You can't suggest  THE FACT  that someone  SHOULD DO  something. "should do" itself implies plan/future, not something happened. Thus, "suggest the fact that X should do Y" makes no sense.

Hope it helps.

daagh · Answer

Dom
Hi

The essence of a present subjunctive mood is that there should be an element of mandatoriness or an imperative need to obey in such contexts. Therefore, words such as suggest, recommend or advise can be either subjunctive or non-subjunctive depending upon who suggests, recommends or advises. If a higher hierarchy suggests or recommends, then it is subjunctive, e.g: Supreme Court suggests that the high court look into this —here it is subjunctive because it is the SC which suggests here. However, if the High Court suggests that SC may look into this, then it is not subjunctive because HC cannot order SC. Similarly in this case, reports submitted to the Board, which is a higher authority, are not binding on the Board to adopt. They are mere suggestions and the Board may use them or ignore them. Thus, the mandatoriness is missing in the context. That is the reason in A, that the verb is not in the subjunctive mood but only in the indicative mood

RMD007 · Answer

Experts, please explain OE. I understand that answer choice should contain "theirs" not "its" as we are talking about reports, a plural subject.

I selected option B
Some of the posts above mention that "which" wrongly refers to appendices and it should refer to "figures". I disagree with it. Since the construction of the choice B is that  " figures   in their appendices (prepositional phrase)   which " , presence of prepositional phrase does not alter the modification of "which". I think it still correctly modifies figures.
Please clear this, if it is wrong.

If the above judgment is true, is the presence of "would" in the sentence sufficient enough to discard this choice?

sayantanc2k · Answer

There is no justification for the use of hypothetical "would suggest". Moreover "that fact" is unnecessarily wordy and can be omitted. Hence B is wrong.

GMATNinja · Answer

Easiest issue here is probably the pronouns: "research reports" is plural, so we would definitely need "their appendices", not "its appendix." That eliminates (C) and (D).

Beyond that, I think Kaplan is just trying to get you to choose the most efficient answer choices. Let's compare (A) and (E): the only difference is that (E) adds a couple of unnecessary words ("the fact") -- so we can eliminate (E).

That leaves us with just (A) and (B). I don't think that the difference between "in their appendices figures" and "figures in their appendices" matters much, but (B) again adds some extra crap we don't need: "the fact" is a waste of words, and there's really no reason to use the conditional "would suggest" instead of "suggest." So that leaves us with (A).

gmat1393 · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION   
Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

When the underlined portion contains a pronoun, check to make sure the pronoun clearly and unambiguously refers to a particular noun in the sentence and that it agrees in number and gender with that noun. Here, the pronoun “their” appears early in the underlined portion and can only be referring to "The research reports," the subject of the sentence. That noun is plural, so "their" is appropriate. It appears that there is no error in the original sentence. Check the other answer choices to make sure.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

A vertical scan of the choices reveals a 3-2 split: (A), (B), and (E) use the pronoun "their," while (C) and (D) use the pronoun "its."

Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices:

As noted, "research reports" is plural, so a plural pronoun is needed to replace it. (C) and (D) use the singular "its" and can therefore be eliminated.

(B) and (E) both insert "the fact" near the end, to read "suggest the fact that." This is simply superfluous language; it adds no additional meaning to the original "suggest that." The GMAT prefers concise language whenever possible, so eliminate (B) and (E).

The sentence is correct as written, so (A) is the answer.

TAKEAWAY: Look for the commonly tested errors, such as pronouns, but don't forget that (A) is correct 20% of the time. Don't try too hard to find errors that simply aren't there.

rayjaycleoful · Answer

Is there something wrong with the D option?
"figures in its appendix which suggests thatin their appendices figures which suggest the fact that"

The research reports submitted to the board of directors contain in

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The research reports submitted to the board of directors contain in

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